Disclaimer: I don't own Tennis No Ohjisama/Prince of Tennis. If I did, there'd be a lot more chibi episodes for us to laugh and coo at...

Author's Note: Firstly, this idea has been stuck inside my head for ages! So you can imagine my relief at finally getting it out so that I can regain my concentration back again. Secondly, as of now I have no pairings decided; I'm probably gonna 'go with the flow'. Thirdly, enough blabbering from me. Thank you for reading, and enjoy!

Summary: Seishun High School: The team is finally complete again, thanks to the return of freshman wonder Echizen Ryoma from America and 3 ex-regulars joining the tennis team again. Besides winning Nationals and being a regular again, manager Inui Sadaharu has a new resolution: obtain an assistant (a.k.a. guinea pig) to aid him. Fortunately (for him) he finds one in the form of the unsuspecting new sophomore entering Kaidoh's and Momo's class this year. Thus begins the tale of...

The Manager's Assistant

Chapter One (a.k.a. How It All Began)

"You are most definitely drunk."

"I'm not drunk! I'm not, I tell you!"

"Hai, he's not! I am, hehehe…" The first (and only sober) student shook his head in disapproval at the increasingly bizarre and wild antics of his fellow college mates. Right now the trio was celebrating; they had just finished all their examinations for that semester, and had immediately gone out after the final paper to 'party'.

Who wouldn't after a nightmarish fortnight of important exams?

"Oi, oi, aren't you gonna drink anymore? I'll have your glass then!"

'Then again, maybe it had been a bad idea to visit a bar,' acknowledged the first teenager in his mind. With that, he decided to end the celebrations before his friends did something more stupid than what they were doing now (they were both pledging their firstborns; it was a sign of how really drunk they were that they were agreeing ecstatically to the idea). Sighing, he stood up, muttering, "I'll get the bill…"

"… And we all made it back in one piece! Isn't that great, Yoshi?" The third youth, a redhead, grinned drunkenly as he flopped unto the couch, his fellow drunk mirroring his action a few seconds later. Yoshi (apparently the only sober one in the trio) just ignored him, striding into one of the bedrooms linked to their living room. He returned moments later, hoisting a towel over his shoulder and holding a new set of clothes in his right hand.

"Oi Yoshi, what're you doing?" This came from the black-haired scholar slumped next to the redhead (who had passed out and was currently snoring).

"I'm going to take a shower. Kazuki, I suggest you do the same. It'll lessen your headache tomorrow," the bespectacled teen briskly replied before locking the bathroom door behind him.

Kazuki just groaned, the idea not appealing at all to him right then. Sleep was definitely a better option…

When Yoshi walked out of the bathroom 20 minutes afterwards, toweling his blue-dyed hair, he mentally groaned at the sight of his two flat mates snoring loudly on the couch. 'Great, I'd have to deal with their hangovers tomorrow… Those idiots. Now where the heck did I put those pills?'

(Over fifteen years later)

"Ah, Ryoma-kun! H-how long have you been back?"

"… Arrived in Japan yester-"

"Ryoma-sama! Horio-kun, Ryoma-sama's returned!"

"Echizen/Ryoma-kun! You're back from the States!"

They all were freshmen again. This time, though, they had entered Seigaku's sister school, Seishun Koukou.

Echizen Ryoma, former freshman wonder of Seigaku and tennis player extraordinaire, deftly ignored the comments being made by Horio Satoshi and the questions coming from Osakada Tomoka, Kato Kachiro and Mizuno Katsuo as he calmly ambled down the still-quite-empty hallways of Seishun High School (he wasn't an early riser, but today, being his first day of high school, was an exception, and anyway his mother and Nanako insisted on him going early).

"Ano, Ryoma-kun? Does the senpai-tachi know you're back?" He peeked out of the corner of his eye at the timid teenager ('Ryuzaki-sensei's granddaughter,' his mind supplied helpfully) walking next to him, the other four having fallen behind when Horio had tripped over his own feet, before responding.

"No." Ryuzaki Sakuno smiled shyly; it seems Ryoma-kun was still as reserved as ever… oh well, Sakuno was used to his actions by now. "Would you like to know how the senpai-tachi are doing?" she volunteered.

This time Ryoma shot a longer glance at the brown-haired girl. "Ah." Sakuno took that as a yes, and eagerly begun summing up all the happenings since his farewell three years ago.

"Ano, where do I start? Ah, Tezuka-bochou first; He's the present captain of Seishun High School's Male Tennis Club, and Oishi-senpai retained the vice captain position as well. Both their injuries are fully healed now, I think."

'As expected,' was the thought running through the Tennis Prince's mind.

"The Golden Pair still lives on. Kaidoh-senpai and Inui-senpai will probably also be regulars this year… Oh, Inui-senpai still makes his juices for the team…" The brown-haired girl stole a fleeting look sideways and was rewarded with the disgusted expression hanging around Ryoma's features, causing her to giggle slightly before a suspicious gaze from the golden-eyed freshman prompted her to continue.

"Eto… Besides that, Fuji-senpai, Taka-senpai and Momo-senpai didn't enroll in the tennis club when they first registered into high school…" This effectively caught Ryoma's attention, his features turning shocked for a second before they became serious once more. His voice, though, held a note of urgency as he clipped out a "What?"

"… Fuji-senpai joined the photography society for two years, and Momo-senpai entered this school's basketball team last year. Kawamura-senpai left tennis at the beginning of his first high school year; he decided to polish up his sushi chef skills during that time, but he resumed playing sometime at the end of last year. But don't worry Ryoma-kun, I'm sure all three will join the tennis club this year," Sakuno added when she noticed the expression on the Tennis Prince's face. The black-haired teen merely nodded once, his way of saying an unspoken 'arigatou' for the not-unwanted information.

A comfortable silence reigned for the rest of their journey towards their new classroom.

At the rate he was cycling now, Momoshiro Takeshi would make it in time for his first day of the new school term. That minor fact however didn't prevent the spiky-haired ex-tennis-now-basketball player from slowing down at all, zooming past another cyclist who had stopped at the left side of the gates to stare at the various buildings adorning Seishun's grounds. After a few minutes, said cyclist leisurely led his bike to the bicycle stands nearby, murmuring in English under his breath as he did so:

"Hm, so this is Seishun High School huh? Doesn't really seem like much to me…"

And thus our story begins…

END OF CHAPTER ONE